I awoke to an uneasystirring in my gut. I could hear thudding footsteps above us, and the dull murmur of voices just beyond the walls. Standing on the rice bags to gain height, I pressed my ear to the cellar trapdoor.
“We found two escaped mares just outside Heyi. If you’re hiding her here, you and your descendants will pay—up until the seventh generation.”
My throat constricted at the threat, but Madame Wu sounded unperturbed. “If I hear of any news I will report it back to you, General. We have always followed the Imperial Commander in this household.”
There was the low thrum of activity, and then a new voice, from farther away. “She’s here, somewhere.” Beads of sweat gathered on my forehead at the familiar timbre of Sky’s voice. “I can feel it.”
Damn you, I thought miserably.For making me feel this way, small and afraid. For making me loathe you, when all I once wanted was to spend my life by your side.
Lei’s condition worsened. His skinburned fever-hot and yet he shivered uncontrollably. He would take no food and barely anywater. By the second day he could not keep his eyes open, having drifted into a restless oblivion. His pulse felt sluggish to me, and there were several times I panicked, thinking his heart had stopped entirely. Despite my best efforts, I was losing him. He would die under my watch.
“Leave me,” he’d told me. “You must go on.”
Had he Seen it, that he would die? Or had it only been a calculated remark, to convince me to leave him behind? And who had poisoned him—who wanted the Ximing prince dead?
We had already wasted two nights hiding in this cellar, and still Sky’s troops swarmed every village in the prefecture. Sky would stop at nothing to find me. And I could not leave Lei behind like this, half-dead but still half-alive.
All the while, my time was running out.
I brewed more herbal teas to keep busy, though he refused to drink most of them. I could feel the contamination of his qi, like a once-roaring river now choked with algae.
His face was perturbed even in sleep, and I smoothed the crease between his brows, my hand lingering on his face. His beauty was the first thing I’d noticed about him, and it had intimidated me, how handsome he was. Yet now I understood he used it like a shield, so that others overlooked him, mistaking his vanity for foolishness. Somehow, over time, his beauty had become a comfort to me; it was his mind that frightened me still.
I sat up, realizing I could feel no breath from his lips. He wasn’t dead, was he? Even though he was resting, selfishly, I wanted assurance. “Lei,” I whispered, trying to recall the last time I’d heard his voice. “Lei, wake up.”
He did not stir. Jagged fear gripped me, sending my pulse into a frantic race. I leaned over him, fingers trembling as I undid his tunic and pressed my ear to his bare chest, straining to catch aheartbeat. Silence. Only the furious pounding of my own filled my ears, and I wished for a foolish moment that I could transfer a part of mine to him.
There was a way, I thought, recalling old legends of the autumn and spring periods. There was a way I could lend my qi to him. But my life force was already so weak. Could I afford to give more of it away?
I thought of how Lei had brought water to my cell. How even before that, he had come to my aid in the dungeons, when I’d lost the will to live. Everyone marked him as a monster, but what if he was one of the most selfless people I knew? It was hard to tell, with him. He went to such lengths to conceal his true motivations, so that no one would ever suspect kindness lurking behind that wicked grin.
With trembling hands, I took one of Lei’s knives and sliced open my wrist. Before the blood could leak down my arm, I brought my wrist to his mouth.
Reflexively, his lips parted. I watched his throat work as my qi transferred to him. When the pressure of his mouth diminished, I bound my wound, then pressed my ear back against his chest. Lightheaded with exhaustion, I felt tears drip from my eyes as I listened and listened, and then at last heard a slow, faint rhythm. I treasured that sound, pressing my cheek against it as if I could shelter it from the cold and wind.
It was like him to make life so troublesome for me, to make even his death as inconvenient as possible. “Ming Lei,” I whispered. “Fight it, you bastard.” In a quieter voice: “Don’t leave me here alone.”
He forced one eye open, reaching for me. I gave him my hand gratefully, squeezing it with all the strength I had left.
“I’ll stick around,” he said, in a voice so low I had to strain to hear it. “I’m not done with you yet.”
On the morning of thethird day, Madame Wu brought breakfast with a radiant smile. “They answered our call,” she told me breathlessly. “At last.”
“Who?”
“The Black Scarves,” she said, before clarifying, “the Leyuan rebel forces—who overthrew Warlord Yuan.”
Lei had mentioned them, I recalled. He’d warned that they were moving west.
“They just finished a mission in Chuang Ning and are now returning to Leyuan. They’ve kindly offered to escort you to your journey’s end.”
“My journey’s end?” I repeated.
“To First Crossing,” she replied. “They have to pass through the city regardless on their way to Zhong Wu. And their military leader is here too.” She giggled unexpectedly. “He’s rather memorable.”
I swallowed with distaste. I wanted no part in their rebellion, but I would have to use them for my own means. I could allow them to escort us as far as Weiyang, I decided, so that we were out of Sky’s grasp. Lei and I would split off from there.
Nodding, I wolfed down a few scallion pancakes, braided my hair, then secured my sword on my back.
